


Where do we go now?

by Engellinks_Teufelrechts



Category: Motorcycling RPF
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 21:48:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3994075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engellinks_Teufelrechts/pseuds/Engellinks_Teufelrechts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Be careful what you wish for, it might come true...</p>
<p>Dani wishes for a distraction from the fact that he won't be racing in Jerez, but really....? This was a bit too much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wishes and Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first time I actually feel confident enough to post something I've written. Let me know what you think.

“Dani!”

The small Honda Repsol rider stopped on his way out of the clinic and turned to his right where the voice came from.

‘Please don’t let it be a fan,’ he thought. After his doctor had just confirmed that he wouldn’t be riding in Jerez he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with people. He just wanted to go home, or in this case a hotel room in Barcelona to sulk in peace. The sunny Thursday afternoon in Spain really didn’t fit with his mood today. He’d flown in this morning for his appointment with the doctor who did the surgery on his arm and even though knowing the answer beforehand it still hurt to know he wouldn’t race this weekend if he wanted his arm to heal properly. His flight back wasn’t booked until tomorrow because he hadn’t known how long the appointment was going to last beforehand and he’d though a night in Barcelona might distract him a bit. Dani was sure he knew some people here who were willing to meet him for a drink.

“You’re Dani Pedrosa, right?”

‘Or a reporter,’ he amended, ‘please, please don’t let it be some gossip reporter.’ Dani was willing to deal with a bunch of crazy screaming fans over a gossip reporter’s questions any day.

Putting on a polite smile he turned fully towards the voice. The woman who was now standing in front of him could be either. Dressed casually in jeans and a fitting t-shirt she looked young, maybe twenty, tall with long black hair and good proportions. Naturally beautiful, not one of the overly done up girls with fake everything and far too much make up. Certainly someone he would remember, had he met her before.

But what really caught his eye was the fact that she looked utterly exhausted. Dark rings under her brown eyes that were clearly visible on her tanned skin, no obvious make-up, the t-shirt looked wrinkled and her jeans stained. The most noticeable thing though was what she was carrying in her arms. Wrapped in a blue blanket was a small child.

“Yes…” he answered slowly, he had a bad feeling about this.

‘Please don’t claim this is my child, I don’t even know you, I’ve never seen you before,’ his media smile was slowly slipping. If she was a fan he’d sign something just to get away from her and he’d had enough practice to politely get rid of anyone else.

“Marc Marquez is your teammate right?” she was talking fast, bordering on panicking. He gave a barely there nod to confirm her question and then she was talking again, “Can you pass him on to Marc please? I thought I could do this but I really can’t.”

Dani breathed deeply, making sure he was still smiling politely, ‘Thank god, she’s not saying it’s mine.’ And now he felt guilty that he was relieved she was claiming it to be Marc’s child and not his, not that it could be his, obviously. He would’ve remembered that.

She pushed the bundled up child into his chest and by instinct alone his arms came up to keep it from falling. Dani was too stunned to do anything at first, but when she turned around and started to walk away he shifted the child to his uninjured arm and grabbed the back of her t-shirt as she was leaving.

“Hey, you can’t just leave him here with me.” he tried to sound confident even as he was starting to panic inside. The Honda rider was sure that by now his polite smile had slipped, he was just hoping that his panic wasn’t showing openly.

“But I can’t do this, I really thought I could, but I just can’t.” she sobbed. He made sure not to lose his grip on her shirt.

“Come on, calm down. Please,” he was aware that he sounded desperate. Comforting crying woman was really not something he was good at. Usually he tried to be very far away when that happened and if that wasn’t possible he just sat next to them until they’d stopped crying. Looking around he spotted a bench a few meters down the road and shifting his grip to her wrist dragged her over to it.

“Why don’t we sit down and talk about this,” he said to her, pushing her to sit down and settled down next to her.

The woman pulled her feet up on the bench and wrapped her arms around her legs, sobbing into her knees. Carefully he adjusted the child wrapped in its blanket in his arms to make it more comfortable and safe. From what he could only guess it was a pretty young baby. At least he knew how to handle small babies thanks to some of his friends already having children.

While the woman was crying Dani took stock of the situation. It was a typical sunny Thursday afternoon in Barcelona. People were walking on the sidewalk, cars driving on the street. Businessmen on their way to the next appointment, mothers with their children, teenagers enjoying a free afternoon, patients coming and going from the clinic he himself just left. Everybody wrapped up in their own little life. On the grand scale of things a man holding a baby sitting on a bench next to a crying woman was nothing out of the ordinary, ‘and I should be thankful for that,’ he thought to himself.

Nobody had recognized him other than the woman next to him. Looking closer at her, she looked younger now then he had first thought, vulnerable as well. Dani shifted his focus to the child in his arms. Small and weighing nearly nothing, most of it, ‘he, she asked to pass him on to Marc,’ he corrected himself, was wrapped in the baby blue blanket. The only visible part of the baby was part of his face. Shifting the rider used his free right hand to push the blanket out of the child’s face.

And felt like somebody had sucker punched him right in the stomach. ‘He looks like Marc, or well, Alex, but definitely like a Marquez.’ At first Dani had though it was just a desperate single mother who latched on an opportunity when she saw him. After all it was easy to claim the child to be his teammates; he couldn’t possibly know who Marc slept with after all, but this. The little boy, who thankfully had slept through all of the drama, looked like Marc or Alex when they fell asleep on the plane or airport lounge. The same cute scrunch of the face that made both of them look so much younger than they were was prominently present on the child’s face as well.

The familiar resemblance was really undeniable. ‘I really hope this is just some stupid coincidence, because other than that I can think of only three scenarios and each one is worse than the last. And no matter what this is going to be a PR nightmare with me right in it,’ he thought and started to dig for his phone in his pocket. He’d better contact someone to manage this before anything else happened.

Dani was just searching his phone for a name he could call with this when he realized he’d been sitting here for a good hour already and the sobs and crying next to him had come to a stop. Slowly he turned his head to the right and looked at the woman.

“Hi, are you ok now?” he questioned carefully, making sure to use a calm voice.

“Yeah,” she answered quietly. She looked like she was going to jump up and run away any second now.

“Why don’t you tell me about this?” he had to keep her talking, preferably until she realized she couldn’t just leave her child with him. But at the same time he carefully angled up his phone to take some pictures of her in case she did just that, after all she had tried to run before.

After another moment of silence she started talking in a quiet, strained voice.

“I met Marc last year at a party my friend dragged me to. We had finished school and this was our goodbye trip, the last week of July. She was leaving for university in September, to London. Mia is my best friend since forever, she’s like a sister and she left me.”

The woman, ‘can I really call her a woman? She looks so young, more like a girl,’ was talking disjointedly.

“So because we were both nineteen our parents let us go alone. A week in the south, at the beach, it was our first time on holiday alone. And then the second night there we were at this party and Marc and some other riders were there. You see I recognized him because my big brother is a big MotoGP fan. And then when he asked me to dance I couldn’t say no and I know I shouldn’t have gone home with him. He was my first.”

And thank you, Dani really didn’t need to know this, but he made a kind of agreeing noise anyway to get her talking again.

“And then the day after I met him on the beach again and I don’t know why but I went with him again and then during the rest of the week I spent a lot of time with him. Mia called it a summer romance, she told me to just live and not let my parents dictate my life anymore. See my parents are very religious, catholic. Growing up I spent a lot of time in church and stuff and they always said sex before marriage was a sin, but Mia’s family is different and she told me to just live.”

That sounded very familiar to the Honda rider and brought up memories he really didn’t want to think about right now.

“And then when I found out I was pregnant I was at university here in Barcelona and I just couldn’t kill the baby so I decided to have it, but my family would never be ok with it and it’s just too much and I don’t have anyone to ask for help and he’s crying all the time and I just can’t do this. I need my family and I can’t keep this a secret from them, but I can’t tell them either,” she finished.

Dani looked at her. She looked so young and exhausted.

“I’m sure that if this is really Marc’s child you’ll be able to come to some sort of agreement with him.” He showed her the phone in his hand and smiled, “look let me just call someone from Marc’s team and we can sort this entire thing out.”

At that moment the child in his arms started to cry.

“I can’t do this,” and before Dani could stop her she was up and running away without looking back, leaving him sitting on a bench with a crying child in his arms.

That’s when he realized that she’d never told him her name.


	2. Help is on the way

‘Fuck, couldn’t she have been a gossip reporter instead?’ Dani felt helpless.

“Shh, calm down please,” he begged the child in his arms.

‘Ok, you can do this,’ he thought to himself. He’d babysat for some friends before; he knew how to do this. The small rider tried to calm himself down and not descend into panic like he wanted to. “Crying means you’re either hungry, wet or both,” he said quietly to the baby in his arms. Talking out loud seemed to calm the child down at least a little bit, so he continued.

“Let’s see what we have,” the rider tried to sort himself out. Phone still in his right hand, mostly useless right now, goes right back into his pocket. His carryon bag with a change of clothes and a tablet for reading still slung over his shoulder, also useless. Child wrapped in a blanket nestled into his left arm, still crying, but at least not screaming. A blue bag left on the bench on his right, he hadn’t seen that before but it looked like a diaper bag, “this looks like your mother left it here, so let’s check it out.” Sadly the bag didn’t really have a lot in it, a few diapers and wipes and a spare onesie, but no bottles or formula. There was another side pocket but he couldn’t get into it one-handed so he left it for now.

Keeping up a monologue of random technical facts about his bike he started to slowly free the baby from the blanket. It was only dressed in a white onesie and a diaper. A quick check revealed that at least the child wasn’t wet. ‘Yet,’ the small rider thought. Dani startled a bit when the baby actually moved his hands, but then his attention was drawn to the baby’s wrist. A wrist that was adorned by a blue hospital bracelet.

“So, let’s see who you are,” Dani carefully moved the tiny wrist so he could read the bracelet. “Baby Marquez, born on the 15th of April 2015,” he read, “so you are two weeks old and she named you Baby, now that’s just cruel.” Smiling he turned his attention to the baby’s face and found himself looking right into Marc’s brown eyes. “Well that paternity test is just going to be a technicality,” he found himself slightly breathless. Also Marc really should have known better.

But the baby was still sniffling and now sucking on his thumb which probably meant he was hungry. And Dani didn’t have any food for him. He looked at the bracelet again which, now that he paid closer attention to it, also listed either the treating or the birth hospital. And that was on the same street as the clinic he had visited earlier. ‘Finally some good news,’ carefully Dani wrapped the little boy up again before standing and adjusting the baby in his arms. After a moment he’d orientated himself and realized that the hospital was just a few buildings down the street, so he grabbed the diaper bag and started walking. ‘Please don’t let anyone spot me now,’ he thought and pulled the cap he was wearing deeper into his face. The rider really didn’t want to know what the media would make out of him with a baby in Barcelona.

In no time at all Dani was standing in front of the hospital. ‘What do I do? Go in, not go in...’ he deliberated. It was the child that helped him decide by crying louder, ‘I don’t really have a choice, do I?’ he asked himself. Gathering his courage he stepped inside and walked up to the reception.

“Hello, how can I help you?” the receptionist smiled as she asked him. She looked friendly, about his mom’s age and gave him a very serene yet stern impression. Like nothing could shock her.

“Hi, eeh…“ what the fuck was he supposed to say?

“I think this child is a patient here and his mother kind of pushed him on me. He’s my friend’s child. And he’s crying and I think he’s hungry but she didn’t leave me any food and I don’t know where else I could’ve gone,” he blurted out. ‘That could’ve gone better,’ now he just felt stupid and he was sure everybody could see him panic.

“Oh,” the woman looked clearly stunned as well. ‘At least I’m not alone with that,’ Dani thought, holding on to the baby like a lifeline by now.

“Ok,” she visibly gathered herself, “do you have his name and birthday and I can check in the database and if he’s not a patient we can still sort you out with formula and a doctor’s appointment.”

“Thank you,” Dani breathed in relieve. “He’s named Baby Marquez, born on the 15th of this month.”

While she entered the data into her computer Dani turned his attention back to the crying baby, slowly rocking him in his arms to give him a bit of comfort. He’d quieted down a bit when he walked so he hoped the rocking would help as well.

“Alright, he is indeed a patient here and he does sound hungry,” she smiled at the small man, “so I’m going to call a nurse down and she will get you sorted out with a bottle.”

Dani smiled at her, finally things were looking up. “Thank you so much.”

“Ok sweetheart,” she really did remind him of his mother, very kind and generally calm but at the same time her voice had a clear no nonsense undertone. “I just need your name and then you can go sit down, a nurse will be with you shortly.”

“Dani, my name is Dani,” she just looked at him and he felt like a little boy having misbehaved in front of his mom again. ‘Get it together, she probably doesn’t know who you are anyway,’ he thought to himself.

“Pedrosa,” he added, praying ‘please don’t recognize me.’

The woman smiled at him again, “alright Dani why don’t you head up to the paediatrics ward and then a nurse will meet you there.” He must have looked at her pretty blank because she continued, “take the elevator to the third floor; turn right and then trough the red doors there is a waiting room. Just sit down there and a nurse will be with you shortly.”

He gave her a bright smile, “thank you again; I really don’t know what I would’ve done otherwise.” With a smile she waved him off and the Honda rider made his way over to the elevator.

 

“Dani, right?” the nurse had apparently been waiting for him already when he walked through the door. He gave her a nod, “If you could please follow me, all the treating rooms are in use right now, but you can sit down in our break room. Then I can get you sorted out with a bottle for him.”

“Ok, thank you,” the small man followed her down the corridor and gratefully sank down on the sofa in the room she’d led him to. It seemed like no time had passed at all before she returned with a bottle, sitting down next to him. While he was feeding the baby he was talking with the nurse. The baby had indeed been born in the hospital and had been in for a check-up earlier that day.

“Your friend hasn’t handled the pregnancy and birth very well; it’s good to know she has people supporting her. I really thought she might give the child up for adoption.”

‘And here comes the awkward part’, Dani thought, replying “Yeah, actually… I’m not a friend of the mother; my friend is who she claims to be the father of the child. And from what he looks like that could very well be true.”

“Oh…” That seemed to be a common reply he got today.

After a moment of silence she started talking again, “So, the mother basically abandoned the child with you?”

“Yeah,” he answered, giving her a sad smile.

“Alright, with an abandoned child I have to call social service, even if you claim to know the father, so maybe you could call your friend while I go and take care of that?” she tried to give him an upbeat smile.

By the time the nurse returned Dani had tried calling Marc five times before he realized that the younger man was probably in a press conference. Further searching in his phone revealed that no; he did not have the number of Marc’s manager Emilio. A rather embarrassing phone call with Honda administration at least netted him that.

The woman from social services turned up not soon after. Retelling the story of what happened in great detail and with questions from the woman thrown in wasn’t an easy feat. That woman really wanted every single detail he could remember. Taking notes she showed no sign of stopping and he was exhausted after the day he had. Sending the nurse of to find the birth certificate in the system she started asking him another round of questions.

Dani was reaching the end of his patience, not that he would ever show that, when the nurse returned. She passed the birth certificate to the social worker, who looked at it before passing it to him,

“Is this your friend?” she questioned him.

Looking at the name, birthday and birthplace of the father he could only agree.

“Ok, can you get in contact with him? Is he close by? I would prefer to get this sorted out as soon as possible,” she sounded impatient.

“He is in Jerez for the weekend, working. I can’t reach him right now, but there is some else I could call who is there with him.” After she gave him a sign to do just that he carefully dialled Emilio’s number.

While he listened to the ringing he looked down at the child still cradled in his arm. ‘He really does look like Marc. I’m just thankful that nobody has recognized me or connected the names on the birth certificate. Well either that or they are just really professional.’

\---

Emilio was on his way to another meeting when his phone rang. Unknown number, he didn’t have time for this now. Reject call. Not a minute later his phone rang again, the same number. Reject again. He was nearly at the room of his next meeting when his phone rang again.

“WHAT?” he picked up and asked rather angrily.

“Emilio?” asked a timid voice.

That voice made him stop and look at the number on the phone’s display, still not a contact in his phone, but he knew that voice. ‘Why would…’ returning the phone to his ear he questioned, “Dani?”

“Uhm... yeah, I’m sorry for disturbing you, I know you have to be busy right now, but I’ve run into a problem in Barcelona.” the caller now identified as Marc’s teammate answered.

“Dani, while I’d love to chat I’m a bit busy right now. Also shouldn’t you contact your own manager if you’ve run into a problem?” he questioned the rider.

After a moment of silence the other man answered, “Well, it’s not my problem. It’s Marc’s.”

“And how do you run into Marc’s problem, if you don’t mind asking?” after a short look at his watch he added, “and hurry up, I’ve got a meeting coming up.”

“Earlier today a woman asked me to pass something on to Marc, so I kind of need to speak to him.” Dani replied.

He felt the hope welling up in his chest, “Please, please tell me it’s his driver’s license, because he misplaced that recently.”

“Ah, no it’s not that…”

‘Well there goes the hope of easily solving that problem,’ he thought.

“Ok, then whatever it is can you bring it to the next race? Or if it’s important I can give you the address of Marc’s lawyer and you can leave it there.” He looked up and saw someone in the door already waving impatiently.

“It’s not exactly something; more of… oh you’re not going to believe me. I’m just going to send you a photo,” soft rustling and talking before his phone signalled an incoming message.

Now he felt intrigued. What would he not believe? He opened the message and nearly dropped his phone. “Shit!” he cursed and let his body drop back against the wall he had conveniently been standing next to. The picture on his phone showed a sleeping baby’s face that very closely resembled Marc. Actually it looked a lot like some of the baby pictures he’d seen on the wall in Marc’s parents’ house.

“Dani, tell me this is a prank. Please tell me this is a prank Marc convinced you to play on me,” he pleaded and even to his own ears that sounded desperate.

“I wish it was, but right now I’m sitting in a hospital with a woman from social service. The mother just left the child with me. I have a copy of the birth certificate which claims Marc as the father.” Dani explained. It was only now that he realized how weary the rider sounded.

“Fuck!” he cursed.

“So, because the child is basically abandoned and in the care of social services right now they want to talk to Marc. I tried to call him earlier, but he didn’t pick up.”

“Alright,” he finally got a grip of himself again. The door to the meeting room had closed, he was going to have to get the information he missed later. A check on the time revealed that the press conference Marc was in would end soon. “Marc is nearly done with the press, can he call you back?”

A soft discussion in the background he couldn’t follow and then Dani was back, “Ok, but can I tell him? And can you film it?” the other man sounded strangely eager.

Unexpectedly he found himself smiling. A video of Marc’s reaction was going to be good, “Yeah that’s a good idea. He will call you back in about fifteen minutes or so.” He ended the call and made his way to the press conference. He had a charge to kill, possibly, or at the very least severely scare. Just going by the picture there was no real doubt about that child’s parentage.


	3. I'm a what?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so it's been a while... I managed to badly sprain both of my wrists, not very conductive to writing....

Marc was just leaving the Jerez press conference when he was grabbed around his upper arm and dragged away. Shocked he just followed along but after a few meters he got his bearing back, pulling to a stop. And found himself face to face with a livid looking Emilio.

“Emilio, what?” he was confused, ‘What was wrong? I’m sure I’ve kept to the plan we discussed before the press conference. I didn’t say anything offensive, I said sorry again about Argentina. Why does he look like he wants to murder me?’

“Quiet. Just follow me. We have to talk in private,” his manager hissed at him. Hissed! He’d never seen Emilio this mad before. The man gave him another glare and continued walking, the tight, nearly painful grip on his right arm forcing him along.

Dazed the young Repsol Honda rider just followed along. Only one thing running through his head, ‘What have I done to have Emilio so mad at me?’

When he was pushed to sit down Marc came back to reality and looked around. He was sitting on the couch in his motorhome. The man he thought of as a second father was looming over him.

“Call him back!” he ordered in a hard voice.

He was confused, ‘Who am I supposed to call back?’ A look at his manager revealed a very impatient look and a rather rude gesture with his hand. That he was holding his phone with.

Call, of course. Now where was his phone? Pulling it out of his pocket he was rather curious. Who had tried to call him and, failing to reach him had then apparently called Emilio? ‘Five missed calls’ he read, ‘from… Dani?! Why would Dani try to call me? What is going on?’ he panicked. Emilio clearing his throat made him look up again. An impatient gesture made the order quite clear. Call him!

Hesitantly he tapped on the contact to call his teammate back. What did he do to Dani that the man had called him and then his manager? He wouldn’t say anything bad about him. He missed his teammate! While he listened to the ringing he got more and more nervous.

“Marc.” his teammate’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Dani, hi. Emilio said to call you back,” he greeted his friend. Internally he pleaded with the older man, ‘please don’t be mad at me, please.’

“I’m aware this is going to sound stupid, but can I send you a picture and you tell me if you know her?” Dani sounded weary. “Because she handed me something earlier and claimed it to be yours.”

“Ok… “ that sounded like a strange request. Dani could just bring whatever it was to the next race. His phone beeped with an incoming massage and he moved to look at it. The girl in the picture looked exhausted but familiar. Now where… sun, dancing, the beach, a bedroom… Holiday, he’d met her last summer. She had been his holiday fling. What was she called again?

“Sara,” he exclaimed.

“So you do know her? Where from?” his teammate questioned him.

“Holiday, met her last summer. Umm… end of July. She said her name was Sara. But why would she give you my old t-shirt back. I’m sure that’s the only thing of mine she has, I gave it to her after…” he trailed of. Dani probably didn’t want to know about how he had torn of a girl’s shirt in the heat of the moment.

“Ah… yeah a t-shirt is not the only thing of yours she left with apparently. I’m just going to send you another photo. You won’t believe me otherwise.”

Now Marc was intrigued again. What could possibly be so bad that he wouldn’t believe Dani? He opened the photo as soon as it arrived, eager to know what Dani was talking about and then promptly dropped his phone when he got a look at the picture displayed.

‘Nononono this is not happening. This was a prank, right? This had to be a prank.’ Marc’s mind was stuck in a loop. ‘But,’ a little voice in his mind questioned, ‘where did they get the photo of Sara? Alex had to be in on it as well. And Emilio, and Dani, and probably my parents as well. Alex took Sara’s picture and Emilio got the baby picture, maybe one of my old ones and then they got Dani to do the call.’ He rationalized.

“This is a prank right?” he voiced his thoughts, looking up at Emilio who was fiddling with his phone. “This is a prank and you’re filming that and everybody is going to laugh about it later.”

Emilio shook his head. “Sorry Marc, but no, this is real.”

His phone beeped again. In a stupor he picked it up from the floor and looked at the screen, another message from his teammate. Cautiously he opened it. It was a selfie of Dani with the baby in his arms, both of their faces clearly visible. He took his time studying the photo. Dani looked exhausted, but it was clearly a recent picture. The baby did look a lot like him, but what really got him were the eyes. Eyes he saw every time he looked into the mirror, his eyes.

“This is photo-shopped right?” he questioned his manager. There was no way it could be his child. He was always careful to use protection. Right?

And again his phone ringing pulled him out of his thoughts, a video chat request from Dani. He answered on autopilot and almost wished he hadn’t, because on his screen he could now see his teammate with the baby. Clearly moving, very clearly real.

“You believe me now?” his teammate asked after a moment.

“Yeah,” he croaked.

“Congratulations, you have a son,” Dani commented dryly. “She put your name on the birth certificate and everything.

This all seemed to unreal. A child, what was he supposed to do with a baby? He had no clue what to do with a baby. The baby started to make soft noises and on the screen Dani slowly started to rock it which seemed to calm it down. And then it hit him like a highside. A son, he had a son. Oh god, he was a father. And then everything went black.

 

Noise was the first thing to return. There was soft talking in the background. Emilio and… a tinny voice, like from a phone on speaker, Dani. Why would those two talk on the phone? Then things slowly came back to him. He was awkwardly slumped on his couch because apparently he had fainted when he found out about his son. Oh my god, he had a son. Also oh fuck, nobody was ever going to let him forget blacking out. He groaned.

“Oh hey, I think Marc is with us again,” Emilio’s voice, far too cheerful to be any kind of good.

Slowly he opened his eyes. Emilio was sitting next to him on the sofa, a notepad propped on one leg and already filled with his manager’s cramped writing, the phone balanced on the other leg.

“Ok, if you could summarize what we have already talked about for him so we can continue this,” an inpatient woman’s voice came from the phone.

Fuck, until now he could’ve pretended that it was a nightmare, but this was just too real.

“Alright Marc, you are named father on the birth certificate, although obviously you haven’t signed it. So we have arranged for a DNA test, tomorrow at lunchtime a courier will come by with a kit, collect the needed samples from you and then return it to the lab, the results should be ready by Monday afternoon. Now, the child needs to stay somewhere because the mother is currently not able to care for him. As you are named as the father you have some responsibility until proven otherwise but going from the photos that is indeed your son. We were just discussing what to do now, as someone has to take care of him until we get back. The options so far are either a foster family, but they already have trouble finding places for children already in the system, your parents or Dani.” his manager explained.

He gave a nod and weak smile to show he’d understood, slowly moving to sit back up on the sofa properly. And then went over the words in his head again. Violently shaking his head he tried to convey his thoughts without voicing them. ‘No, please not my parents my mother is going to kill me,’ but his telepathy seemed to be lacking.

“Not my parents,” he pleaded. And he really didn’t want his son to go to strangers so the only option would be, “Dani, please…” hoping his teammate would understand him.

There seemed to be a quiet discussion going on at the other end of the line so he looked up at Emilio who by now seemed resigned to his fate and was probably already working on containing the very likely fallout of this.

“Okay, I’ll do it, but Marc you owe me for this.” Marc smiled, his teammate did understand him.

The following discussion was mostly carried by Emilio as Marc only half listened; something about legal stuff and paperwork and money. He was still trying to come to terms with the fact that this wasn’t some elaborate prank, but that he might actually be a father. And it all fit as well, with the timing and stuff. Thumbing over his phone he opened the message from earlier and looked at the photos again; Sara, the baby, Dani with the baby. Fuck. As if the weekend hadn’t been hard enough already with his broken finger, now he had to deal with the possibility of being a father as well. Or, considering the pictures he’d seen, the hard fact that he had a son. Marc just hoped he’d be able to do a good race and not let this distract him any further.

At Emilio’s prodding he gave an absent goodbye to Dani and the woman on the phone.

 

\---

 

Dani groaned. How did he get himself into this? Taking care of the baby for the entire weekend and then some, because by signing up for this he now held responsibility for the child until guardianship could be sorted out. And that was either until the mother was found, declared unfit and custody signed over to social services, or in the case of Marc being the father, until all legal and parental rights could be signed over to his teammate. A rough estimate of the woman from social services would have him Barcelona for at least a week, as he wasn’t allowed to leave the city with the baby. Resigned to his fate the Honda rider read and signed all the paperwork the social service agent put down in front of him.

It wasn’t as if he hated children, quite the contrary in fact. He would love to have children of his own, that is after he retired from racing and had the time for them. But taking care of a child now, no matter whose, was just adding more stress to an already complicated situation. The one thing he knew without doubt though was that he wouldn’t be able to let the child go after taking care of him. If the child by some miracle turned out not to be Marc’s or if Marc didn’t want it he was going to adopt it. And he knew they would let him without any problems, after all they were so overworked they just pushed the child onto him without any background check whatsoever.

Once the papers were signed the woman left with a quick goodbye and a card with contact details for him to call if there were any problems. Though the look she gave him implied that he better not disturb her, she had too much to do already without him adding to it. The clinics nurse was better at least. She had stayed with him the entire time he’d been sat in that break room, had taken the baby to an obligatory doctor’s appointment while he’d been talking to Marc, Emilio and the social worker and was now compiling a list of things he needed to buy for him.

It was also the nurse who reminded him that he might want to call and tell the hotel he was booked in for tonight beforehand that he was going to turn up with a baby and, if they couldn’t accommodate him, gave him the details of several family friendly hotels in the city. As it was his hotel would have no problem with setting up a crib in his room and ordering some stuff for him, for a price of course, but because of a business convention had to upgrade his room if he wanted to stay any longer than Saturday.

 

By Monday morning Dani was drained. Actually he was more exhausted than at the end of a season. He’d never known that a baby could be this demanding. Babysitting for a few hours or an evening was nothing compared to taking care of a baby for a few days. And he was never going to admit to anyone that he nearly missed the race, but he’d been so tired and the bed was so comfortable… at least he’d seen the finish and Marc taking a good second place considering the circumstances.

When he’d arrived at the hotel on Thursday evening his room had already been set up, including the things he’d ordered from the list the nurse had given him. The small man had put the baby down in the provided crib and then collapsed face first on the bed. Only to be woken up a few hours later by the crying child. It had taken him more than a few minutes to realize where he was and act accordingly. After changing and feeding the baby his stomach reminded him that his last meal had been this morning at the airport. Eating the candy out of the minibar had probably not been the best idea, but when he made it to bed this time at least it was only in his boxers and under the covers. Sleeping in clothes was damn uncomfortable.

Being woken up by a crying child at five on a Friday was not his idea of a good morning, especially when the child wouldn’t go back to sleep or even calm down after he was fed. The only way to stop the child from crying was to lie down and put it down on his own chest which left him pretty immobile, but at least he got a few more hours of rest himself.

Later that morning, after a room service breakfast, he’d spent far too much time on the internet or more precisely parenting websites and then ordered more stuff for the baby as well clothes for himself online and got everything express delivered. A conversation with a woman from the hotel staff also had him buying a car seat so he could take the baby to the gym in the afternoon.

And that set his schedule for the rest of the weekend; wake up twice every night and have the baby sleeping on his chest after five am feedings, room service food, gym, exercise his arm, take care of the baby and naps whenever the little devil was sleeping. Because whenever the baby wasn’t sleeping he was demanding Dani’s full attention all for himself.

 

Monday afternoon saw the HRC rider back at the hospital for an appointment with the social worker. If he had to say anything about it her mood had not improved, more like gotten worse instead. A short conversation and then he was calling Marc to tell him the results.

“Dani, hi,” Marc’s voice sounded anxious.

“Hi Marc, so let me be the first to say this. Congratulations, you are officially a father now.” He greeted the younger man cheerfully. And if he took some pleasure out of shocking Marc into silence, well he did have to deal with Marc’s child all weekend who even at a few weeks of age already displayed his younger teammate’s endless energy.

On the other end of the line he could hear some heavy breathing and then Marc shouting for his manager, then a lot of curses. It looked like reality was finally sinking in for the younger rider. At bit more rustling and another voice was on the line.

“Dani? I guess you just told him the results,” Emilio asked, “so what’s the verdict?”

“Was there really any doubt?” Dani chuckled, “he’s Marc’s. Want me to send you a picture of the documents?”

“Yeah, that would be good. We are returning this evening, if you tell me which hotel you are at we could meet up there?”

At least one person is sensible right now. After giving Emilio the details of the hotel he was staying in Dani asked the one question he really wanted answered, “Does he want to keep the baby? Because the mother has been declared unfit by social services and has already signed all her parental rights away.”

“Oh. Ok, thanks for telling me. We have talked about it a bit this weekend and Marc said that he would want to keep the child if it was his.” Emilio replied.

Dani managed not to show his relieve about that. He’d gotten attached to the child and it would have been impossible to let him go, just like he’d known beforehand. At least with Marc keeping his son he was able to see the baby again.

“So,” he answered instead, “tell him he really needs to start thinking about a name then, because Baby as a name is just beyond cruel.”

Emilio could only agree with that and then the conversation turned to sorting out some legal facts with the social worker and ended shortly after, without Marc saying anything.

Dani was on his way back to the hotel when his phone rang. A quick look on the screen showed him that is was his physiotherapist calling. Shit, he’d totally forgotten about the appointment he had today to check up on his progress.


	4. Meet the family

Marc felt numb. The past week had felt like a never ending nightmare; first his accident and then Dani’s call. He still expected to wake up on the Sunday morning before he went out to the dirt track. No broken finger, no abandoned child with his teammate and certainly not the fact that he was a father to a three weeks old boy now.

But that didn’t happen. He’d just finished in the garage after testing when Dani had called with the results of the paternity test. The rest of the afternoon was spent more in a trance than anything else. He’d let Emilio herd him through getting changed, to the airport, on and off the plane and into a taxi to wherever. His mind was otherwise occupied. Mainly with a loop of thoughts, ‘Howhowhow? Oh fuck, I’m a father, what am I going to do now? Help, how do I take care of a baby? Shit, my mom is going to murder me.’ The last especially stuck with him.

“Hi,” Dani’s voice pulled him out of his trance.

There standing in front of him was his teammate holding his son. His son! And suddenly it was all so real. It wasn’t just a dream or a nightmare. It was real. He had a son, a baby son. He couldn’t take his eyes of the baby in his teammate’s arms. It was undeniable that this was his son; he looked just like Marc himself looked in his baby pictures. And then his son blinked his eyes open. Marc was gone. Was it possible to love someone this quickly? Because he was sure he just fell in love with his son. His! He started to feel faint again when Dani made a move to hand his son over to him. A warm hand gripped his shoulder tightly and that was the only contact he had grounding him in reality right now.

“Maybe we should wait with that until Marc is actually sitting down; otherwise he might hurt himself if he faints again.” Emilio chuckled.

“I did not faint!” Marc complained, he didn’t, he’ just been… resting his eyes while his brain processed what had happened.

“You did,” his manager was grinning at him now. And Dani was as well. Marc pouted.

“Did not.”

“Yes you did, but that’s not important. At least you’re listening to me now. As I just said to Dani, I’m not up to making the drive home tonight, so I’m going to get us rooms in the hotel for tonight. I don’t know if you actually heard anything I told you this weekend, but we have a meeting tomorrow with your lawyer to sort out the paperwork.”

Five minutes later those planes were temporarily derailed.

“I’m sorry but we have no free rooms this week and because of the business convention it will be hard to find any rooms in the city.” the receptions sounded apologetic, giving them a sad smile. The motherly woman had basically adopted Dani in the last few days and had always been willing to help him out with little tips and tricks about childcare. “But, let me just check something,” she continued. A few click and she had brought up whatever information she had been searching for. Her triumphant grin was enough for the three men to relax slightly from their tense stances.

“The sofa in your room is a foldout. I can send someone up to prepare it if that is alright with you?”

Dani grinned, “you guys can share it then.”

Marc and Emilio looked at each other. It wouldn’t be the first time they had to share rooms or even beds with someone, so for a night or two that should be doable. Although what kind of room did the small man end up with that they had to share the couch? They nodded in agreement anyway.

 

When they entered the room Marc burst out laughing.

“You devious… no way am I sharing that sofa with Emilio when you have a king sized bed for yourself.”

“You agreed already,” his teammate replied, laughing. “Now go sit down, your son is hungry.”

Before he knew what had happened Marc was sitting down on the sofa with his son in his arms, Dani adjusting his grip to make sure he didn’t hurt the baby. Marc looked down at the baby he was holding, his breath caught again. This was his son; he still couldn’t believe it even though he was holding him now. His son blinked and started to make some noises before he suddenly started crying. Marc was panicking, what did he do wrong? He didn’t dare move his arms even a little bit in fear of hurting his son.

“Dani, what did I do wrong?” he nearly shouted. Then he looked around the room and didn’t see his teammate or his manager. Did they leave him alone with a crying child?

“Marc calm down, he’s just hungry.”

The other man returned to the room with a bottle. Sitting down next to Marc he tried adjusting the grip Marc had on his son so he could feed him.

“You need to relax Marc. He is hungry that’s why he’s crying. You did nothing wrong.”

Dani had finally managed bully his teammate into a good position for feeding his son when said teammate started to protest again.

“I can’t do this, please can’t you do this?” Marc was freaking out again.

Not taking any mercy on the younger man Dani pushed the bottle into his hand and then showed him how to feed his son. Looking down at his son Marc still couldn’t believe it. And the doubts were never far away, he couldn’t even manage to feed his own son without help. What was he going to do once he was alone? He couldn’t do this! But no way was he going to give his son away. He could faintly hear Emilio snickering in the background, probably because he looked terrified. Well, let him laugh, Marc was too tired to hide his emotions behind a cheerful smile.

When his son had finished feeding Marc held him in his arms, just staring at him. The little boy seemed to preen with the attention Marc was paying him; blinking his eyes and moving his hands until he slowly got less animated and then fell asleep right in the middle of yawning. The three men sat in silence, each of them deep into their own thoughts.

“So Marc, have you thought of any names yet? It would be the easiest if we do all the paperwork in one setting, unless you actually like the name Baby.” Emilio finally broke the silence.

Marc pulled a face, while it might be nice to call his son Baby now; he wasn’t always going to stay that small and nobody would take him serious either. With Dani’s help the boy was tucked into the travel crib that had been set up in the room and then they all got their tablets out, searching the internet for names.

“Umberto, Geoff, John, Mike, Giacomo…”

Emilio’s answer was just as quick, “Did you seriously just list past MotoGP champions? Also please don’t call him Marc junior.”

“Valentino?”

“You are going to have to name him godfather.” This time it was Dani who commented

“Daniel?”

“What,” the small man’s head came up from where he’d been looking down at his tablet, “don’t call me that, no one ever uses my full name.”

“Not you, I meant for him, as a name.”

“Please don’t, also try to avoid naming him after someone famous or for someone you know.”

Marc pouted and started to look at other websites. It couldn’t be that hard to find a name, right?

An hour later Marc wasn’t feeling so optimistic anymore, possible baby names was nothing he’d ever thought about before, and the other two men were no help either, vetoing his suggestions. He sighted, loudly. Dani kicked him in the leg and then made a questioning face. They were both lying on the bed because when room service had finally made it in half an hour ago to turn the sofa into a bed Emilio had claimed it as his, ending the not really serious argument about sleeping arrangements.

“I just can’t decide…there are too many names to choose from.”

“Ok, first do you want him to have a Catalan name, or a Spanish or English one? Because there is no use searching for Greek names if you are not going to use them.” Dani told him with a look at his tablet.

Marc flushed; he only ended up looking at Greek names because the letters looked pretty.

“Catalan I guess.”

“Then limit your search and also only male names, you can’t use female ones and they will only divert your attention.” His teammate turned back to his own tablet, reading who knows what.

After another hour Marc was beyond frustrated. In a fit of anger he threw the tablet down on the bed and then declared, “That’s it. I cannot do this. I’m naming him Dani and then I’m making you the godfather and then you can’t complain.

“Marc please don’t do that,” Dani begged.

At that point Emilio decided to get involved in the conversation again, “Marc, do you actually have some names you like? Other than Dani, that is.”

The young rider nodded.

“Alright, then write them all down on pieces of paper, throw them in a hat and pull one out. We are meeting with the lawyer tomorrow and it would be perfect if you had come to a decision by then.” With that Emilio threw a set of the hotels stationary with perfect aim right at Marc’s head.

Marc looked at the man with wide eyes; he couldn’t just pick a name at random! But then again, for lack of better ideas he proceeded to write the names he liked the most on pieces of paper before folding them. Either he decided that whatever name he picked was the right one or he would decide he like another one better.

Gathering all the folded papers up, he mixed them in his cupped hands and then held them out to Dani; who looked at him with wide eyes.

“Well go on and pick one.”

The older rider slowly extended his hand and carefully picked one of the papers.

“Are you sure?”

Marc dropped the rest on the bed and made an impatient move with his hands. Yes he was sure, it was better than if he did it himself. He would probably throw the name back in the mix and then pick a new one and repeat that forever. With Dani picking it was decided.

“Lluc.” He announced.

Marc grinned; his son had a name now.

The newly named Lluc decided that moment was perfect for waking up and making his presence known. And Marc got a lesson in changing diapers.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday passed in a haze of paperwork and meetings for Marc and Emilio, Dani had lucked out in their opinion, he was spending his days babysitting in the hotel. On Thursday morning the smaller man had to come along as well though. It was the final meeting with social service, another check-up with the doctor and signing the last of the paperwork. Marc had never known that a stupid meeting just signing some stuff could take that long, that it would be boring was just a fact. Dani didn’t seem to mind the long meeting; from what it looked like he’d easily charmed the nurse who was present into helping him with something. They had been talking for the past hour, taking notes on some spare paper and she had left the room a few times and came back with more and more papers each time; Marc was not looking forward to reading whatever they were talking about. A grip on his arm pulled him back into the conversation with Emilio and the unfriendly woman from social services.

Thursday afternoon things were finally sorted out; all necessary papers were signed and the doctor’s appointment passed without trouble. It was time for Marc to take his son home. As Alex had taken Marc’s car home from the airport Emilio had offered to drive him home.

“So Dani, airport?” Emilio questioned after everything in the car had been stored away and after a lot of struggling the car seat had been installed.

“What?!” Marc’s head came up from where he’d been pushing his bag into the boot of the car. “You can’t go to the airport. You have to come home with me,” he nearly shouted.

“Marc,” Emilio reasoned, “you cannot just kidnap your teammate because you are scared to be alone with your son. He already missed appointments with his physiotherapist because of you.”

“Then I’ll pay for him to be flown in. I need Dani!” Marc was desperate now. He couldn’t do this alone and Dani obviously knew how to take care of a baby, he hadn’t made any mistakes so far and he’d stopped Marc from making quite a few!

“Seriously, you have your parents at home. I can guarantee you that they know how to look after babies. You and Alex came out alright after all.”

Fuck, his mom. He had to tell his parents. He’d managed to totally push that to the back of his mind until Emilio had brought it up. She was going to end him. His mom liked Dani that was just one more reason for kidnapping him. His manager was not stopping him! Also, he was arguing with the wrong person, it was Dani who had to agree, possibly, to coming home with him. Turning his best pathetic look on Dani he tried to beg his teammate to come along.

“Not the puppy dog eyes Marc.” Damn, why did Emilio always have to interrupt?

Luckily for Marc, Dani was not immune to the eyes even with warning and agreed to come along for now. A grinning Marc didn’t even mind being squashed into the backseat next to his son.

 

Marc woke up Friday morning feeling wrong. He couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong, just an inherent feeling of something not being the way it should be. He slowly took stock of his situation; he was at home, in his own bed and the sun was shining into his room; he’d forgotten to close the curtains. He and Dani and Emilio had gotten in late last night, they’d barely had enough energy to build a makeshift crib out of a laundry basket before they collapsed into bed. And then he’d been woken up in the middle of the night by Dani. His son had been crying and his teammate had heard it from the next room over. They’d fed and changed the baby and then went back to bed. Nothing was wrong after all. Slowly sitting up the young man stretched and then rolled over to check on his son and was suddenly wide awake.

Everything was wrong! His son was not in the basket he’d put him down in last night. Oh God, where was his son?! Marc was sure he’d never before felt this terrified in his entire life; also he’d never gotten up this fast before either, not even when his little brother had emptied a bucket of cold water over him. Panicked the young man started to look around his room for his son, maybe he’d climbed out of the basket, but Dani had said it would be safe; and then remembered that the baby could barely lift his own arms, let alone crawl around the room. Someone had taken his son! Marc stumbled over his own feet in his haste to get out of his room and search the house for his son, managed to right himself and started checking in every room on his way to the front door; maybe whoever had stolen his baby was still here!

In the door of his living room Marc stopped short. Dani was lying on the sofa, the baby curled up on his chest. The sudden relieve he felt made Marc’s knees go weak and he collapsed into the closest armchair. Everything was alright, his son was ok. Of course logically he’d know that nobody could’ve just walked in and stolen his son, but he’d panicked anyway. He took in the room around him; there was an empty bottle on the table. And now he felt monumentally stupid, his son must’ve been hungry and Dani had taken him without waking Marc up. Now that he thought about it though, his teammate had to have a seventh sense for crying babies. The past three days when they’d shared a hotel room Marc had always slept through the night, he’d not been woken up by a crying baby even once. Last night was the first time Dani had woken him up in the middle of the night to feed his son. Wow, he had to be such a bad father already, not being woken up by his hungry son crying.

The young father sat there just staring at his son. He was so small, even curled up on Dani’s chest he looked tiny. And usually his teammate was the one that made everyone else look tall. And every time he’d held his son in the last few days what had struck him the most was how fragile the baby is. One wrong move and he could hurt his son, and what if he fell? His son was never touching a bike! What if he hurt himself? He still feels uncomfortable sometimes when his little brother gets on a bike, how could he ever let his son do something so dangerous?! How did his parents ever survive him and Alex riding bikes and constantly crashing? No, his son was doing something else, maybe dancing; there were no serious injuries in dancing, right?

“You know, this is kind of creepy, the way you are staring at him.” Emilio’s voice ripped Marc out of his contemplation.

Marc gave a startled sound and turned around. His manager was standing in the door holding a cup of coffee. He hadn’t even heard the other man get up and move around in the kitchen.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I have a meeting with Honda and Hector at ten, we’ll have to see how long that lasts, but Hector and I should be back around here after lunch so we can discuss how to proceed from there.” He looked at his watch, and then went on, “well, I have to leave now, make sure to tell your parents about this, it would be best if they were here this afternoon so I only have to talk about it once.”

When Marc turned his attention back on the sofa Dani blinked at him sleepily. The younger rider really felt guilty about waking his teammate up, Dani looked like he could use a good few hours more. And it was indirectly Marc’s fault that the older man was missing sleep; it was after all Dani who’d gotten up early to feed the baby when Marc himself hadn’t even woken up. At some point he’d have to do something really amazing for his teammate to thank him for all the help, but for now, “Breakfast?” he offered the older man who gave an absent nod.

 

After breakfast and a slow morning convincing Marc that he really had to tell his parents asap was more work than Dani had thought. Although he could kind of understand being afraid of the reaction as far as he was aware Marc had great parents, not like… it was better not to think about that. In the end he managed to persuade him to invite them over for a late lunch when Emilio and Hector would be over as well; safety in numbers and all that. 

Upon arriving Emilio passed the congratulations of Honda along who couldn’t really care less about Marc’s son unless it would cause a scandal; which was unlikely to happen. Although he admitted that while they were indifferent now they might just turn it into a publicity stunt or marketing later on. Kids bikes and clothes when Marc’s son was learning how to ride; prime advertising in the making. Hector was just surprised to see Dani there as he apparently hadn’t been informed of all the facts surrounding Marc’s son yet.

Before they could really start talking the doorbell rang again. His family; Marc slowly started to make his way to the door. This was it, no way out.

“Congratulations on your race,” Roser hugged her son. They hadn’t seen each other since before he left for the race, “You said you had something to tell us?”

After greeting his father and brother he led his family into the living room where the others were talking. While his parents easily greeted the occupants and settled down on a loveseat, Alex stopped short when entered the room.

“What is Dani doing here? And, is that your shirt he is wearing? Are you guys dating? Is that why you called us all over, to tell us?”

The Honda teammates gaped at each other. Where the fuck did Alex mind come up with this shit?! Dani’s look clearly implying, he is your brother not mine. Marc was still struggling to form a reply when the other guys in the room started laughing.

Marc was trying to stutter out a reply when they were luckily interrupted by Lluc, who had been peacefully sleeping in his car seat next to Dani so far, starting to cry. And with that all the attention in the room was on the small rider. He easily picked the baby up and settled him in his arms, the crying turning into quiet sniffling.

“Whose child did you guys steal? Is this like practice for when you two complete your little family?” it was Alex that broke the awkward silence. Marc wondered why his little brother was always considered the more serious one of them; he said the worst kind of shit in private.

By that point Roser’s maternal instincts had kicked in and she’d made her way over to Dani. She gave a small gasp when she got her first look at the baby.

“I guess there is no chance this is your child…?” she questioned the small rider who gave her a small smile and then looked pointedly at Marc.

“Mama, he’s mine,” and wow, did Marc sound small.

“I’m just going to…he needs changing,” Dani quickly left the room with the crying baby; anything to get out of the room before she exploded.

“Marc Marquez Alenta!” Roser apparently took the fact that the baby wasn’t in the room anymore as a chance to lecture Marc, loudly.

While he changed the baby Dani could faintly her Roser talking and although he couldn’t make out words, she did not sound happy. He tried to take as long as possible, but then sniffling was slowly turning into crying again; Marc’s son was hungry. He took the long way around to the kitchen so he wouldn’t be seen by anyone in the other room, but there was only so much time he could waste before the bottle was ready and he had to brave Marc’s mom again. Although she was by no means a dragon that woman had a temper, but he would bet everything he owned on the fact that when he returned to the living room the first thing she would demand was her grandson.

And he would have won that bet as well. As soon as he entered the room she turned away from lecturing Marc and was on him in seconds, cooing at the baby and by extension the small man as well. Dani easily passed the baby to her experienced arms and handed her the bottle as soon as she’d settled back down on the loveseat.

Marc still appeared stunned from his mother’s quick mood change. After a moment of silence he managed a quiet “Mama,” which conveyed all of his confusion and then some.

“Oh baby, did you really think I would turn my grandson away? I would have preferred if you had waited for a few more years before you had a child, maybe a girlfriend first as well, but this is your child, how could I not love him?” Roser knew her son well.  
“So, you guys are serious then, I mean with a child and all. Is Dani going to move in with you now, or are you moving to Geneva? Oh God, did you cheat on him, is he even alright with your son? I read that that could really damage a relationship and….”

“Alex,” Emilio cut the youngest off. “Do we need to limit your internet access again? Dani was just there when Marc found out about the child and let himself be bullied into helping. They are not a couple as far as I am aware.” Then he turned to look at the HRC riders, “you are not, right? Because if you are I’m totally ok with that, but I need to know in case something comes up.”

Both HRC riders looked at each other. They were barely friends. If anyone asked them to define their relationship with each other they’d claim the other a teammate first and foremost. On track they were rivals and of track they got along just fine, talking about random stuff, but not anything really important.

Vehemently shaking their heads they denied any kind of romantic relationship between them, they were just casual friends. Also where did Alex come up with that?


	5. Little Brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so it's been a while... firstly thanks for all the kudos and the comments  
> my co-worker quit the day after i posted the last chapter which left me working 70+ hours a week... and then when i finally had the time to write again last week my laptop broke...  
> hopefully the new guy will work out and leave me with a private life again

Friday turned into a long day. Dani and Marc had to explain the whole story of how Lluc came to live with Marc and there were a lot of interruptions and questions asked. And then Hector and Emilio took their turn outlining their media strategy and general behaviour expected of them all. Another topic that had to be discussed was who was taking care Lluc while Marc was away racing or doing other stuff for Honda. That topic however had been sorted out quickly as Roser had declared that yes of course was she taking care of her grandson when Marc had to travel and work, but when he was at home his son was his responsibility; and only his!

 

Dani cursed himself again. Why was he not immune to Marc’s damn puppy dog eyes? He could’ve spent an easy Saturday morning reading and maybe doing some exercise while babysitting. But no, Marc had decided that he had to come along shopping with him and Roser. And of course they’d had to take Lluc along as well because there was no one to babysit.

That was how the small HRC rider found himself in a huge baby store listening to Marc arguing with his mother; and of course Lluc had been upset when the argument started, so who was carrying the baby? Dani of course; and no Lluc had not been happy in his car seat in the trolley, he had wanted to be carried.

Roser, ever the practical woman that she was, had prepared a list last night and was now trying to methodically work her way down that list. The plan had sadly been destroyed the moment they had entered the store and her son ended up distracted by all the toys. Dani rolled his eyes; they’d been in the store for nearly twenty minutes already and had not made their way past the entryway really. Their first stop had been, no Marc, your son does not need a two meter tall teddy bear. And it had only gone downhill from there. The current topic was a rocking horse, or not so much a horse really, considering it was a motorbike. The older man had to admit it was nice, but not really safe for at least another year. When his arms were starting to go numb Dani decided he had to act. Neither Roser nor Marc had listened to him when he tried to be the voice of reason so he had to do something before he suffered a setback on the recovery of his arm.

“Hey, I’m just going to see if they have a sling or something to make it easier to carry him.”

Dani took the noises they made at him for interrupting their argument as agreement and ventured further into the store. The section with baby slings was easily found, but there had to be a good thirty different ones. He could still remember a friend’s wife going through about five of them before she finally found one that worked, so with that in mind he dug his phone out of his pocket and called said friend.

Ten minutes later he’d finished the phone call, found the right sling, payed for it and had slowly made his way back to where he’d left Marc and Roser; who by then had finally stopped arguing.

“Dani, where have you been? We were so worried.”

Apparently they hadn’t heard him when he’d told them what he was doing.

“Bought something for you.”

And with that he passed Lluc over to his grandmother and proceeded to strap the baby sling onto Marc. Roser caught on to what he was doing quickly and helped him get the baby settled in the sling on Marc’s chest. Hopefully with the baby as a barrier they would at least stop quarrelling.

His plan worked perfectly. Without the constant arguing they made their way through the list easily. Furniture and decoration and all the other necessary stuff were sorted out within record time until the only thing on the list were clothes and toys. For the last part they’d decided to split up; while Roser was collecting clothes the HRC riders went for the toys.

That was when Lluc started to get fussy again and only calmed down when he was in Dani’s arms. The older man guessed that the baby could feel Marc’s excitement and was reacting to it, so instead of heading straight for the toys the guys spent a good few minutes transferring the sling to Dani and getting the baby settled again. And while Lluc calmed down instantly Dani seriously doubted his ability to keep Marc from buying half the toys in the store.

It didn’t take very long for Dani to lose his patience with Marc. Far too much energy and money was a bad combination. How old was his teammate again? It sure felt like he was herding a pre-schooler right now.

“Look Marc, most of these are just because you want them, your son won’t be able to play with them for at least another year. Also as soon as this gets out you’ll end up with enough toys to fill one of your spare rooms because everybody will gift you something.”

“But I want…”

“No, listen to me. You are going to look for a stuffed animal travel sized, something you bought for him, and get at least three so you can wash them. And then you can buy three other things, anything else you won’t need for a while yet and someone else might’ve bought it for you by the time you need it. Lastly this shop is not going to run away, if you actually need something you can always come back.” He left the hopefully without me unsaid.

After that Marc pouted for a bit but then actually did what he was told. It didn’t take long for the younger rider to decide on a stuffed animal and pick up three of the ones that were about fifteen centimetres tall. He also picked up their big brother though, who was nearly as tall as Dani. The older man consoled himself with the fact that at least it wasn’t the damn two meter tall one Marc had wanted earlier. Marc’s other two toys turned out to be a remote controlled car and a super soaker; clearly not for Lluc.

When they were done with the toys they made their way over to the clothes section, looking for Marc’s mother.

“Oh my God, these look like my leathers. We have to buy some of them.”

And of course Marc saw something that distracted him again. Leaving the trolley Dani stepped in and took a closer look. He hadn’t even known they made these things, but here they were, clearly on display. Baby clothes of all sizes and even pyjamas for kids, all looking like their leathers. There were also other kids t-shirts and even some hats in Marc’s helmet design.

Roser found them still in front of the display when she had finished selecting the clothes she deemed necessary for her grandson. With her help Dani managed to pry Marc away from the display, of course not without selecting some stuff.

Check out took a while too, with all the stuff they had amassed. A nice store attendant had kept all of their purchases on the side and after paying they arranged to have everything they bought delivered later that day.

Julia’s very important errant that morning had apparently been collecting Marc’s grandparents, so when they returned from shopping lunch was already cooking. Alex, not to be outdone, had dragged Tito home from training with him and then declared him practically family anyway, so come on and show him. And that was the green light for everyone else to come forward, crowding around Marc who had just carried his son inside from the car. Everyone wanted to see Lluc and hold him as well; Marc’s grandmother won that battle quite easily though.

After Lluc had been introduced to everyone present the whole family settled down for an easy family lunch. Marc had been congratulated by all of his family, although there had been more than one comment about being careful that had Marc blushing bright red. His grandmother had declared that the baby needed a mother and settling down in the chair next to him, had started trying to set up him up with every girl she knew. The young man was starting to look more and more uncomfortable, making help me faces at Dani whenever she wasn’t looking. Alex had strategically placed himself on the other side of the table, probably knowing that once she was done with his older brother she would start in on him. For lack of her younger grandson she started in on the older Honda rider instead; declaring him such a nice young man for helping Marc and being so good with children. Then she proceeded to tell him everything about her best friend’s granddaughter, such a nice young woman. Telling her about his long-time girlfriend he was planning to propose to this summer at least diverted her attention and made both of the riders feel more comfortable.

The easy family lunch was finally disturbed when everything they’d bought earlier got delivered. After that the house turns into a mad scramble, with everyone offering their own opinion about what should go where and how to do things correctly. Roser was the one who took charge of the whole thing after all the arguing got too much for Lluc who voiced his displeasure of having his nap disturbed rather loudly. Alex and Tito got volunteered to set up the furniture while everyone else started unpacking the boxes. Marc probably got the worst job; whenever something was unpacked he was the one to put it away to wherever it should be. “So you know where it is, baby.” What nobody mentioned before, was that everyone who was unpacking had a different idea of what should go where so poor Marc was left running all over the house sorting things away; also deciding which opinion was the right one and acting accordingly. Dani was the only one who managed to escape the chaos. As Lluc appeared the most comfortable with him he got to lie down outside on a lawn chair, just enjoying the warm and sunny afternoon with a baby sleeping on his chest.

 

It was late in the afternoon when Marc’s parents and grandparent left the house. Nearly all of the stuff had found a new home; the only things not sorted away yet were the ones going into Lluc’s room as Alex and Tito were still struggling with the furniture. Those had been piled into a guest room instead.

Therefore when the doorbell rang the HRC riders looked at each other questioningly. Who was coming over now? The family had left over an hour ago. As Marc was holding his hungry son it was left to the older of the two to open the door.

The small Honda rider slowly opened the door. As far as he was aware nobody else was coming over today, at least nobody without a key.

“Hi.”

“Jorge?”

Dani blinked. The other Spaniard grinned at him. Ok, he had to be hallucinating from lack of sleep; he closed his eyes, counted to ten slowly and opened them again. Jorge was still standing on the doorstep; and the bastard was still grinning as well.

“What are you doing here?”

“Alex invited me over.”

Why would Alex invite anyone over? Especially without telling Marc. Dani blinked again. He seriously didn’t know what to do right now. Should he invite Jorge in? The taller man could apparently read his indecision.

“He said that if I wanted to see Marc embarrass himself I should come over. But he never said anything about you being here as well. Hey, is that Marc’s shirt you are wearing?”

Dani looked down. Yeah that was Marc’s shirt. He’d totally forgotten that he’d had to start borrowing yesterday because the baby had spit up on his last clean shirt. Although that reminded him that someone really should do the laundry.

“Uuuhhh…”

“Dani, help!” Marc’s shouting and the baby crying pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Well come in then, I guess…” what he really wanted to do was shut the door in Jorge’s face but he guessed he really couldn’t do that. What he could do though was have a word with Alex. He really couldn’t believe the kid had invited Jorge over.

Jorge gave him a sideways look but stepped inside anyway. The small man shut the door behind his rival and gave the other a gesture of follow me before going back into the house in search of his teammate. Marc was in the kitchen, trying to handle preparing a bottle with one hand while holding his crying son in the other arm; not very successfully though. Why he didn’t just put the baby in the carrier while he prepared the bottle with both hands, Dani didn’t know; it wasn’t as if Lluc didn’t cry either way. The thankful look Marc gave him when he entered the kitchen and relieved him of the bottle turned into horror the moment he spotted Jorge who had followed Dani in.

“Dani, what is he doing here?”

“Not a clue. Apparently your brother invited him.”

The older rider easily prepared the bottle and pushed a slightly catatonic Marc into the other room and over to a sofa, then got him settled to feed his son. Jorge meanwhile was grinning like the Cheshire cat.

“This was totally worth the drive.”

“Not a word to the media,” Dani threatened the Yamaha rider and then made his way upstairs to where Alex and Tito where still trying to set up the furniture that had been delivered earlier. The emphasis being on trying.

 

He couldn’t fucking believe it. Just no! Hadn’t Emilio and Hector outlined a media strategy yesterday? And then the kid had the nerve to… just to annoy his big brother. He was tempted to drag the Moto2 rider downstairs by his ear, but had settled for a tight grip around his wrist instead. Why did everyone have to be so damn tall anyway? Tito followed them meekly; he might have been a co-conspirator in all of this.

Glancing around the room he saw that Jorge had settled down in an armchair and apparently hadn’t stopped grinning. Marc’s son had finished feeding, so depositing Alex in front of his brother he grabbed the burp cloth, draping it over his shoulder before taking the baby out of Marc’s arms. He really didn’t want him in the middle when Marc found out just what his brother had done. His teammate still looked like a deer cough in the headlights.

“Tell him!” he hissed to the younger brother before retreating over to Jorge’s side, bouncing the baby on his shoulder.

“I… uhhmm…” Alex stuttered, trying to retreat back to the door. Only to bump into Tito who looked scared stiff.

“Alex, tell him!” Dani ordered, “Or I’m calling Emilio and your parents.” Keeping quiet about the fact that someone would have to do that anyway, with what the young Moto2 rider had started.

“So, uhh… I might have…invitedsomepeopleover.”

Marc blinked. This whole situation was beyond surreal. Jorge was sitting on his favourite armchair grinning like a mad man, Tito was giving Dani sideways looks and also making sure to be as far away from the small man as physically possible, Alex was standing in front of him and looked worse than when he’d accidently broken their neighbour’s window when he was ten and Dani looked totally calm now, though he’d never seen his teammate as livid as a few seconds ago when he’d dragged Alex into the room.

“Say that again.”

“I might have invited some people over.”

He’d done WHAT?! Why would Alex invite someone over when they’d agreed just yesterday to keep the whole thing quiet? Dani growling, actually growling, pulled him away from that line of thought.

Alex made a terrified sound and continued, “Maybe more than a few people.”

Dani audibly breathed in, “He sent a private message to every rider he could find on twitter. If they were in the area and wanted to see you embarrass yourself they should come over this evening. I guess Jorge was just the first to arrive.”

Marc took a deep breath and tried to calm down. No he was not going to kill his brother, no matter how tempted he was. The only thing he could do for now was damage control. Deep breath, close your eyes and count backwards from a hundred. You are not going to kill your brother. When he opened his eyes again he’d marginally calmed down, at least enough not to start shouting at his brother right away; he didn’t want to upset Lluc who was still in the room.

A call to Emilio really didn’t sort things out any better. Even if Marc put out a message now, uninviting everyone, people would still turn up; their best bet was to ask those that turned up to keep things quiet until the press release was published on Monday and hope for the best.

 

In retro perspective the message Marc ended up posting wasn’t any better. “I know that Alex invited you over but he did it without my consent and I’m not really up for hosting people tonight. If you insist on coming over anyway please be aware that I have neither food and alcohol nor free guestrooms.” It however ensured that when Marc’s parents turned up later that evening to pick up their grandchild there were nearly thirty riders around the house and enough food and alcohol to feed an army; and not a small one either. Nobody wanted to even think about the sleeping bags piled up in the corner of a room. Sometimes Dani really wondered what MotoGP riders considered “in the area.”

By that point Marc had already forgiven his little brother and started to have fun. With all the riders trickling in over the late afternoon his son’s room was set up in record time. At least some of the other riders were more handy with setting up furniture than Alex and Tito who apparently, were more likely to injure themselves than set up a crib. And so far everybody had kept their promise not to tweet about it. Although that had probably something to do with Jorge, his idea to set up a basket next to the door and demand everybody put their phone in it if they wanted to come in was genius. But he really was going to murder the next person to make a comment about “keeping it in his pants” it hadn’t been his fault, damn it. Though that was doubtlessly the reason he enjoyed his mother giving his brother a good dressing down and a lecture about listening to his elders in front of everyone.

It didn’t take long for things to go down from there. After his parents had left everybody suddenly started to really drink in celebration of his son. And, most likely connected to how everybody ended up at his place the topic they ended up with was embarrassing siblings.

“That’s nothing, so what? Your little sister walked in on you? I walked in on my little brother fucking a girl in my bed when we were teenagers, because apparently his room was too embarrassing to show her.” Marc was sure he’d had too much alcohol when he couldn’t actually make out who of the three guys on the sofa said that, but that probably made it easier to laugh along with everyone else. Also, thank whatever deities there were that he’d never walked in on Alex, or his little brother on him; he could go the rest of his life without that ever happening.

“And of course then you had to tell mom about it. Why is it that you guys think little siblings are embarrassing, the older ones can be just as bad.”

“Well, I needed a reason for burning my sheets, might as well tell her the truth, otherwise I would have been in trouble.”

Marc did a double take. Was that Pol and Aleix arguing? Fuck. He burst into another round of laughter, the movement finally dislodging him from his perch on the arm of the sofa, sprawling over the riders sitting on it. Two failed attempts at getting up had him deciding that he was perfectly comfortable where he was so after a bit of wriggling around he settled down.

Someone poked him in the shoulder, repeatedly, so he finally moved his head to look who was disturbing his rest; and looked right in the face of his teammate.

“Dani,” he grinned, “You have a little brother as well, right? You have to have some kind of story to tell. Did he ever do something like that?”

His teammate blushed. Damn, there had to be a good story there.

“Dani come on, tell me,” and if he whined loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the room, well he just really wanted to know.

It didn’t take long for the pressure of the other riders to get to Dani and he capitulated. “Yes there is a story, and it will top everything you have complained about so far.”

Oh, now Marc really had to know, the small rider sounded far too uncomfortable for it to be anything but good. Well good blackmail material at least. He poked the older man repeatedly in the ribs to get him to start talking.

“When I first moved out of my parents place it was actually into a flat not too far away. And my little brother was in that teenager always fighting with our parent’s stage. So he would turn up and then sleep on my sofa and after the third time he woke me up in the middle of the night I just got him his own key; there was no harm in that right?” he chuckled, “at least that’s what I thought. Turns out he was seriously abusing that key. Whenever I was away at races he brought girls to my flat, and another thing, he apparently used the fact that he was my little brother to pick up girls.”

“That’s not that bad though,” someone shouted into the room, interrupting Dani.

“Then maybe you should let me finish,” the older man breathed in deeply. “He got drunk, he stopped being careful, he brought a girl home while I was at home as well. So I got woken up by sounds in the other room, they weren’t being quiet. They were on the sofa, naked, she was riding him, and she was my age not his. So when I walked into the room and they saw me well…. She recognized me, smiled at me and then asked for an autograph, adding to that she did it whilst not stopping with what she was doing to my little brother. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she then proceeded to tell my brother that she hadn’t actually believed him when he told her he was my little brother.”

Dani had to wait quite a bit for the room to calm down again. The drunk laughter and giggling and exclamations of, “this really tops it all” and “please tell me you have never done that” lasting for quite a while.

“That’s not the worst of it though,” Dani continued, “she then said to me, do you want to join, I give great blowjobs.” The room fell silent for a moment as every rider considered the horror of that before someone giggling set the rest of them off as well.

“So your brother is actually still alive? What did you do to him?” Jorge finally got out between giggles.

“That night I kicked both of them out and took his key back. And then I moved to London and didn’t talk with my brother for the longest time. We get along nowadays though.”

“Wait a minute. You let me stay over at that flat like a year ago! You made me sleep on that sofa!” Marc was too drunk to identify whoever just said that but he sounded thoroughly disgusted. Not that he could blame him.

“Actually that is a new one. When my little brother first moved out of our parents place I gifted him that sofa.” Dani giggled, “And my parents made him accept it as well when he tried to complain. They said he should be grateful for his big brother being so generous.”

No matter how mad he’d been at his brother earlier that day, Marc was seriously thankful he’d never been subjected to something like that.

 

Monday morning Marc was woken up by his phone ringing at an ungodly hour. It had taken them until lunchtime on Sunday to finally kick out the last of the impromptu sleepover guests, and the last people leaving coincided with Marc’s extended family arriving. The afternoon was spent relaxing outside and letting someone else cook.

He rolled over, groaning; thank the stars for Dani feeding his son at five in the morning.

It was Hector calling.

“Marc. You might not want to read the news this morning. I promise I’ll take care of it as soon as possible.”

That sounded ominous. Hadn’t they planned to do a press release today? Was the reaction so bad that Marc didn’t want to even know about it?! And at what, half five in the morning? There had to be some serious nerds at work to already write stuff about it.

Their conversation was cut short before it even began by Hector hanging up on him because of a second call coming in. Marc slowly got up. No matter how bad it was he’d at least have to read it to know what was going on. Pulling on a t-shirt he slowly made his way downstairs in search of his teammate. He found Dani and Lluc in their by now usual position, asleep on the sofa. Glancing at the phone in his hand he just couldn’t resist taking a few pictures before he carefully woke Dani up.

When the news website had finished loading both HRC riders gaped at the screen. That was not the agreed upon press release.


End file.
